


Dark Horse

by Lady Lecter (RoNask)



Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types, Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy - Thomas Harris
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 11:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12231948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoNask/pseuds/Lady%20Lecter
Summary: Clarice M. Starling is a criminal who escaped the FBI's custody after working with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, now, seven years later she is in the States to meet an old friend.





	Dark Horse

The door closed with a gentle click, the sound of her steps was firm, the heels touched the ground gracefully.   
Her scent filled the air and he breathed her in, a smile appearing on his lips as he placed the file inside the suitcase.  
“L’Air Du Temps and the lotion I sent you a few years ago” he turned to face her calmly, a movement that would case skepticism and horror in another person. He was dangerously unafraid of her.  
She had been in prison for eight years for murder, declared insane, a complete shame for the FBI, she had been great on her time. Perhaps too great. It had been seven years since he had last seen her and seeing her outside a prison cell, dressed elegantly was a sight to behold. A sight that he placed safely on his Memory Palace for later appreciation.  
“Good evening, Doctor” former Agent Starling said.   
Clarice Marie Starling, thirty-three, FBI’s Killing Machine or Angel of Death.  
Hannibal Lecter M.D., the psychiatrist who interviewed her during her time in prison, she refused to talk to anyone other than him. She wouldn’t talk to her friend Ardelia nor to her mentor Jack Crawford, which amused and pleased Dr. Lecter.  
It was no secret that Jack had his lusts for Clarice and his suspicions towards Lecter, making the sight of the two together a terrifying view for him.  
“Good evening, my dear. If you’ll excuse the comment, you look quite stunning, Clarice”  
“Are you hitting on me, Dr. Lecter?” she questioned raising an eyebrow, a smile on her lips.   
Dressed in black as she was made her look mysterious and even more dangerous, however, Lecter knew her enough to know she had no interest in his demise. Or so she told him, she wasn’t one given to lies.  
He never lied to her.  
“As appealing as you look tonight, Clarice, I would never hit on you,” he said approaching her. “Not to court you, however, is a promise I won’t keep” he offered her his hand. “Would you dance with me?”  
“There is no music”  
“There is no need for one”  
She shrugged briefly and accepted his invitation.  
Hannibal lead her gracefully into some kind of silent waltz.  
“What brings you to town, my dear?” he questioned.  
“You” her answer came without hesitance.  
“I have to confess I did not expect you to come after our last exchange”  
She observed him for a moment. “Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’. It does have an interesting sound to it… I had some time to think about it, you never lied to me, I have no reason to believe you to wish me harm or imprisonment.”  
“Have you thought about it? Getting caught?”  
“I will not go down without a fight, Doctor”  
“I would expect no less from you, Clarice”  
A moment and she looked into his eyes, her gaze was kind. “They are hunting you, Jack Crawford wants your head and yet you wrote me”  
“I do enjoy the pen pal”  
“It is dangerous, Doctor, you almost got caught last time”  
After her escape, a letter came for him and he managed to answer, they kept contact for three years before the FBI found a lead and started investigating Lecter. The lead was a dead end, but Clarice had to disappear for almost a year before the good doctor got a hold of her again. Their letters became careful, scarce, but his gifts remained frequent. Until he sent a brief note in a newspaper personal ad and got a letter from her.  
Starling came back to the States and carefully approached him, her investigations found that the FBI had someone on his trail. Jack had come in contact with an old bloodhound of his and was looking for the Chesapeake Ripper.  
“What are you doing?” she questioned.  
“I am bored” he confessed. “And envious”  
She raised an eyebrow.  
“You’ve been running the world, finding yourself”  
“Why don’t you run, Doctor? Leave this place”  
“As much as I like the thrill of the chase, Clarice, I am no nomad”  
“Take a vacation then. Come with me, run with me for a while”  
“The Angel of Death and the Cannibal” he commented. “As you said, my dear, I’m under investigation”  
“They have nothing on you… Whatever Graham has is only on his mind, conjecture”  
“I appreciate the concern, Clarice”  
“I’m being selfish too, come with me, I missed our talks”  
He stopped their movements. His maroon eyes studied her face for a moment. The bones, the light, her hair, the shapes. “Naughty girl. Went from avenging angel to running with cannibals quite quickly”  
“Seven years is a long time, Doctor. We can avenge the innocent and eat the rude for some time.” a moment as she thought of something. “Will you eat Will Graham?”  
He shook his head in a ‘no’. “Mr. Graham has nothing but conjecture and Jack’s distaste for me. He was very disappointed you would talk to me, but not to him”  
“Manipulative bastard”  
“You didn’t talk to your roommate either”  
That made Clarice look down for a moment. “She would never understand and she doesn’t need the harm I would cause her” a moment and she faced him, interest clear in her expression. “I could kidnap you, Doctor. Burn our letters and burn the files, you can start over somewhere else, no Jack on your trail and we can talk more often”  
Lecter raised an eyebrow. “Interesting idea, my dear, but it would draw attention to you”  
“Nothing that hasn’t happened before” she pointed out. “I know how to handle myself, Doctor. I’ve grown bored too and would like the company”  
“Using my words against me? Naughty” a moment. “How would you do it?”  
“I walk into your office and drug you, we can say I was not happy with what you said about me”  
“They will wonder what took you so long”  
“I know the FBI is closing in on you, had to get my revenge before they did”  
“Smart girl. What about the evidence?”  
“We can stage a little fight, leave some DNA behind” she shrugged.  
“Why not just kill me?”  
“I’m the Angel of Death, Doctor.”  
“Torture is not in your modus operandi”  
“I never killed anyone who got close to me, we make it look personal”  
“They would expect you to get sloppy”  
“But you are controlled, so I would have to match wits to get to you”  
Hannibal smiled widely, satisfied with the beautiful creature before him.  
“Freedom suits you, my dear. You look young and happy” he observed.  
“I have been having fun, you should try it, Doctor”  
“I do”  
“You know what I mean”  
He watched her for a moment. “Why are you here, Clarice?”  
“I told you--”  
“My dear, we have an agreement on lies”  
“I didn’t lie, I came for you”  
“Why?”  
“Because I wanted to see you and the FBI--”  
“The FBI is an excuse, Clarice, why are you really here? You didn’t come out of the blue with the idea of a kidnapping, you knew you what you were risking, you’re careful”  
A pause she had to fight the urge to get away from him but failed. “Why are you doing this, Doctor?” she walked around his office like a caged lion.  
“Because I want your honesty” he replied unaffected by her agitation.  
“You have it, we don’t have to--”  
“Yes, we have,” he said in a determined tone. He wanted answers and she wasn’t getting off the hook easily.  
She stopped and faced him, anger in her eyes. “I want you to come with me, why can’t you just--”  
“Because there is more to it”  
“I’m not here to betray you, Doctor, I’m not hiding anything from you”  
“No, just from yourself”  
A beat.  
“You have been honest, you want me to go with you, you never asked yourself why” he stepped closer to her slowly, she caught the movement and he saw when she did.  
“It does not matter”  
“It does, it very much does”  
“Why?”  
“Because I have my own reasons to want to go with you”  
“You can’t ask me to be honest with myself when you--”  
“I never said I wasn’t honest with myself, Clarice”  
“Quid pro quo, Doctor”  
He gave her a brief smile. “Very well, let’s play”  
“Why are doing this?”  
“Because, Clarice, I have no intention of letting you go” he saw the change in her expression, allowed her a moment to breathe. “I would very much like to travel with you and learn what you’ve found in your wanderings, but once the wandering is over, I would like you to stay with me. I believe it is very important to make my intentions clear”  
“Your intentions?”  
“Yes. I have been courting you for years, my dear. Should I stop? Do you want me to stop?”  
She didn’t have an answer for that, she swallowed nervously. “Why?”  
“You say you like me, Clarice, and I believe you, but you are afraid of what liking me in another way makes of you. If I allow you to be with me then leave me, you’ll run whenever you feel cornered, whenever you can’t handle what I am doing to you… Now, my dear, do you want me to stop? I do can work with that and we do exactly as you said, we have our vacation and you can come to visit me anytime you feel like it, we will be what people call friends”  
She closed one of her hands in a fist.  
He moved closer, eyes on hers. “Well, Clarice? Do you want me to stop?”  
Starling watching him. “No, Doctor, I don’t want you to stop”  
Lecter smiled, he caught her chin between his fingers and placed a peck on her lips, testing waters. He pulled away and she caught him mid-act, kissed him back. No peck, a long deep kiss.  
Hannibal broke the kiss after a long while, eyes meeting hers. “Come now, Clarice, we have a kidnapping to stage”  
She smiled widely and followed him.  
In a few hours, they would be out of the country and it would take other several hours before the good doctor was declared missing.   
They had time, a lot of time.


End file.
